Happy Pills

Man, am I craving some candy from Happy Pills in Barcelona.  Have you heard of this place?

They need to expand.  I love them, their design and their concept.

When I visited Barcelona in September, I went back to Happy Pills twice to make a little take-away box of gummies to enjoy while walking around!  Their concept is adorable-In a tiny storefront, they offer different sized boxes, and jars at the entrance for you to fill with all the gummy, colourful candy that fits in.

Their website creatively states that Happy Pills is a radical solution for a) Lovesickness b) Work Problems c) Friendship Damaged d) Sustained Sexual Effort.  I say, whatever your reason, if you love gummies, there is no better way to enjoy than eating them out of a take away container or a plastic “pill” bottle.

Photo Source: 1, 2, 3, 4 (me), 5, 6

They have four shops in Barcelona, one in Bilbao and one in Zaragoza, should you find yourself needing a candy pick-me up during your travels of Spain.

Here are some other people who seem to be happy with Happy Pills:

1. Kikki.K Candy Happiness

2. We Are Private Happy Pills Candy Store (Barcelona)

3. Mocoloco BCN: Happy Pills

Birthday Cupcake from Agnes

I am back from a rain filled birthday weekend in Copenhagen.  The rain held off on Friday (my birthday), but the rest of the weekend was pretty dreary and wet.  A little rain and cold did not stop us from exploring the city though.  With umbrellas, rain gear, gloves and scarves in tow, we walked all over the place to get a sense of the landscape of the city.

I think our best unintentional find was Agnes Cupcakes, Copenhagen’s answer to the North American cupcake craze.  Agnes Cupcakes was started in 2010 in Copenhagen by founder, Kristian Vangsgaard.  Agnes runs on a calendar system of flavours so everyday, there will be a combination of staple flavours such as Red Velvet, Carrot and Dark Chocolate and specialty flavours such as Liquorice, Caramel, Sicilian Lemon, and Quince-tea.

The interior of Agnes Cupcakes is a combination of glass, marble and wood; a reflection of Scandinavian minimalism meets cupcakes.  I actually thought, their interior reminded me of Karas Cupcakes in San Francisco with its glass, and wood- or maybe I’ve visited too many cupcake shops and they are all starting to blur together.

I really liked the Agnes Cupcakes display case because their cupcakes are quite textured in their frosting and decor and visually looked attractive on display.  Some of their cupcakes are simple like the one I tasted with a swirl of icing and a fondant cutout on top (think Sprinkles). Others, in contrast, are rolled in chocolate curls, toasted coconut, sprinkles or other fun items to bite into.

Take away cupcakes are packaged in beautiful, brown, branded boxes and dine-in cupcakes are served on a ceramic plate/platter that has a groove to hold the cupcake and a groove to hold a beverage.  Or I guess you could say there were two grooves for two cupcakes.

We arrived at Agnes at around 7pm for a pre-dinner birthday cupcake.  There was some promotion going on where you could buy a cupcake and a beverage for a reduced price, so we went with a tea and a carrot cake cupcake with a cream cheese frosting.  The carrot cake was spongy and moist and the cream cheese frosting had the tang I was looking for.  It was not the stiffest or densest cream cheese frosting that I’ve tasted, but its gooier consistency complement the carrot cake nicely.

I am a firm believer that you can’t judge a book by its cover, which is why we returned to Agnes Cupcakes on our last day in Copenhagen and sampled two (more) of their mini cupcake, just to make sure!

We also tested a dark chocolate cupcake that had a superb, rich, (bitter) dark chocolate frosting that was like biting into a truffle and their toasted coconut cupcake which was fun to eat thanks to all the little coconut shavings.

What I’ve learned from travelling and eating in Europe this past year (and from personal baking experience here) is that ingredients vary from country to country and things like flour consistency can really alter an end product.  I would say that Agnes’ Cupcakes were spongy and moist but not dense, in comparison to a cupcake that you may taste in North America.  However the flavours and frostings were all terrific.  This is the real deal in Europe!

Other People Who Are Talking About Agnes Cupcakes:

1. Unlike.net: Agnes Cupcakes

2. Umamimart: Packaging w*&$^) Agnest Cupcakes

3. New City Mums: Agnes Cupcakes

4. Anarka: Agnes Cupcakes

Copenhagen Birthday

Happy birthday to me today!  Yippy!

I am off to Copenhagen this weekend for a little birthday celebration and exploration of all things Danish design related.  I can’t wait.  Will report back next week.

The birthday cake is being postponed until next weekend, where I will be doing a double belated birthday baking extravaganza.

Photo Source: Sweet and Saucy

Have a lovely fall weekend.

La Variete

On the last leg of my honeymoon, I spent three days in Barcelona.  Arriving in Barcelona after spending almost two weeks in small, quaint villages was overwhelming.  Especially because our hotel was adjacent to the touristy, La Rambla.  What a nightmare that strip is- it is a more crowded version of Wenceslas square in Prague but with heavier crowds.  Fortunately, I found out that if you walk away from La Rambla towards the Raval district and the contemporary art museum, you  get an artsy, more low-key environment.

On my walk AWAY from La Ramblas, I found the adorable, corner store, La Variete.  Raquel Muntal, owner (local Barcelonite) of La Variete, fills her small shop with wonderful home and personal items designed locally and made in Thailand.  She manages to use every square inch of that shop and has packed it with cool-affordable priced woven baskets, flip flops, vintage furniture, toys, scarves, pillows and clothing that all have an Asian-minimalist aesthetic.

I picked up two of her cloth wrapped headbands after I snapping my last plastic headband on my trip (she also had bangles).  Something else that also stuck out to me was her small glass bottles that were test-tube-esque (els botilets – see picture 8) with a suction cup that allows you to display flowers on your window and her line of paper bags with Thai writing (cases, wallets, sacs and purses -see picture 9).  Raquel has an online store for her boutique which is great if you don’t have any more room in your suitcase!

Photo Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The blogger behind Cute Suite, (see Cute Suite- La Variete) wrote a wonderful post on La Variete that I would recommend checking out if you are interested in another perspective!  She also has a lot of other terrific resources on local designers in Barcelona and indie shops.

Delicatessen- Marseillan

Marseillan, a sleepy port town in the Languedoc region of France that you have probably never heard of, has a gem of a restaurant called Delicatessen.

Despite the restaurant’s central location beside the church in the town’s main square, Delicatessen is one of those places risks being missed entirely unless:

a) You know that it exists

b) You choose to look the opposite direction of the restaurant and pick up on the fact that there is an eclectic collection of vintage furniture arranged on the cobblestones adjacent to the church (no, it’s not a yard sale).

The vintage furniture belongs to Delicatessen and come meal time, bums fill every single chair, couch and stool.  People in the know are hungry for their simple Marseillan fare of seafood dishes, hamburgers, platters and ode to pork.

I could not quite figure out what drew people to visit Marseillan.  Outside of the fact that it is a small, cute, quiet, fishing/beach town marina, Marseillan has a market, a church, a marina, your basic staple shops (boulangerie, patisserie, pharmacie….) and of course the Noilly Prat & Cie factory, the creators/home of the liquor, vermouth.  Perhaps it is the peace and tranquility that is a draw.  It certainly looked like people were relaxed sitting in cafes looking at the boats pass by.

I was hooked on Marseillan after I had lunch at Delicatessen– This restaurant embodied the essence of cool vintage interior decor, with lots of nik-naks and an incredible, high quality menu to match.  From the wine casually served in Duralex (French made) glasses, old posters, old bottles, old bouillon KUB containers, and lots of little pig things (Delicatessen does a lot of pork dishes).

For lunch we ordered the mussels in pesto and a vegetarian “planche” which came with a chilled soup, salad, a fritatta equivalent, olive tapenade and toasted baguette.  If were in the Marseillan region longer, I would have gone back a second time for dinner to try more items off their menu. Everything coming out of the kitchen looked incredible, particularly their hamburger.

For a feel- I even found a short clip posted on YouTube to help get a sense of the vibe at Delicatessen.  Has anyone been here?  I would love to hear about your experience of this rather obscure, yet trendy secret of a spot. If you haven’t been, next time you are in the Languedoc region… I hope helps make an easy decision of where to stop for a casual lunch (or dinner).

Delicatessen